What does an ejection fraction measure?
Each time your heart pumps, it pushes out blood enriched with oxygen to all parts of your body. Your tissues and organs depend on this oxygen-rich blood to function properly. When you have heart failure, your heart can’t pump as well as it should. This could happen if the heart muscle is weak or stiff from high blood pressure, heart attack, heart muscle disease such as cardiomyopathy, or from a damaged heart valve. Heart failure can cause fluid build-up in your legs, feet and lungs. This can make you feel tired and short of breath. The ejection fraction is the percentage of blood your left ventricle “ejects” or pumps out with each beat. The left ventricle is one of four chambers of the heart. It is the one that pumps blood to the rest of the body. How is ejection fraction measured? A normal heart pumps about one half to two thirds of the blood in the left ventricle each time it beats. So, a normal ejection fraction is about 50 to 70 (percent). If you have heart failure and an ejection
